All posts tagged: pet boutique

Karin Fary loves the idea of walking to work. Living just off of Main Street, Fary wants to open a business catering to pets and pet owners on the main thoroughfare in the village area of Gloucester.

Fary intends to open “The Nines Your Canine and Feline Boutique” to offer stylish clothing, accessories, collars and leashes for pets. The business will offer pet photography and several products such as grooming supplies, organic treats and cat and dog products.

“My main goal with the business is to enrich the human-animal bond by providing pet owners a specialty boutique to pamper their canine and feline companions, as well as create treasured memories through photography,” Fary says.

Fary is one of 11 prospective businesses in the running to be one of three proposals selected from a pool of local entrepreneurs to receive a combined value of $95,000 in goods, services and start-up capital to launch a business on Main Street. The Launch Gloucester program is part of Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s Virginia Community Business Launch initiative and is locally overseen by Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust and Gloucester Main Street Association.

With 24 years in the veterinary medical field, Fary has extensive experience with pets. She’s also a co-founder of the “Giving Garden Foundation,” which assists cancer patients in Gloucester and Mathews and has distributed $60,000 in assistance since it’s founding in 2008.

“I’m very into my community,” Fary said.

A resident of Gloucester since 1990 and a graduate of Christopher Newport University, she left Gloucester for a few years in the mid- to late-1990s but returned and now lives just off of Main Street with her family.

“We love Gloucester, the local shops and restaurants and what they do for our community and we really want to be a part of that,” Fary said.

Fary’s vision for her business is a place where pet lovers can treat their companions and find products locally rather than online. Some products will be catered to an upscale clientele, while other clients won’t be quite as upscale, she said.

Pet photography will be offered and within two to five years she plans to expand to pet grooming, training and wellness coaching.

She calls her proposed business retail for the pet lover, to include wall art, t-shirts, coffee mugs and a lot of things pet lovers want for themselves. “With these unique items, the public is going to have a place to go,” Fary said. “And it will bring a different clientele and increase revenue to other businesses.”

Whether or not Fary is one of the three winners of Launch Gloucester, she intends to open the business. “Win or lose, this has been a huge prize already,” Fary said. “This is a business I’m going to start and I’m going to start on Main Street. I just like the community feel and the hometown of it all. I really think we could attract more people into the courthouse based on the services in the area.”

The Launch Gloucester competitors have had a huge benefit from the training, classes and mentoring. “The instructor and all the different speakers have also opened their doors with all kinds of advice,” Fary said. “There’s so much from it that I have enjoyed.”

User StephKarin Fary Catering to Pet Owners For Her Proposed Main Street Business05.14.2015

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Retail Alliance’s educational arm, the Center for Retail Excellence, has partnered with Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust to launch a Certificate in Retail Operations, available to all retailers in Gloucester and surrounding areas.